Win7 Pro performance issues...

[SportSC4]

System: X2 4400+ (S939, 45w), 2 gigs ram, ATI 4670 (1 gig), 320 gig Seagate

I tried out Win7 ultimate beta and RC (all x64). I found the performance to be pretty comparable to XP and it felt just as snappy. Since then, I upgraded my card to an ATI 4670 from my older 8600GT. The other day, I purchased Win7 Pro and installed it on my system (clean install, not an upgrade).

It's been a terrible experience since then. There's lag when doing everything - right clicking on the desktop, the initial time when dragging windows, etc. Flash under firefox is unbearably slow (slow in IE but not as slow), even with the 10.1 beta 2 drivers. Another big issue is that the FPS in my games are less than half of what they once were. With the same settings, SF IV hit a solid 60fps under XP - but in Win7 they're ~20. L4D2 is equally as bad. However, the time it takes to load programs is the same as before.

I've tried reinstalling drivers (used driver cleaner) with no real big improvement. I looked online and saw that some people had issues with AC'97 so I'm trying newer drivers with that (I'll know how that goes this afternoon). Any suggestions?

 

[TJCS]

• Your W7 pro should perform similar to when you were on the RC. Are you using the same drivers you used in W7 RC, or something is updated?
• Have you tried both 8600GT and the ATI both on W7 pro?
• Check all power is pluggin -- Video card, etc...
• Did you remember to update everything: chipset drivers, storage drivers, windows update, directx, and etc?
• With all the the newly discovered lag that you mentioned, it sounds like there is something running in the background or driver/software conflict somewhere.

 

[SportSC4]

Thanks for the help.
So, I've yet to try swapping my 8600gt and 4670 because I've found the issue. It's my realtek AC97 audio.
I played l4d2, incredibly stuttery and low fps. I exited, disabled the realtek ac97 and tried l4d2. Immediately it was butter smooth.

I have the newest driver installed but nothing. I tried looking for any alternatives and still nothing. Has anyone with a realtek AC97 found drivers that work in win7?

 

[TJCS]

Try checking your Motherboard's support site for realtek vista 64 drivers and try them? Sometimes using older drivers improves compatibility issues.

 

[SportSC4]

I think I've figured out the issue...
There's an incompatibility with the ATI Xpress 200 (RS480) chipset and pretty much any ATI card with HDMI. AMD blames the bios but considering that someone was able to get it running on linux means it's ATI's shoddy drivers.

I noticed that one of my cores was ALWAYS at 100%. System Interrupts is constantly at 50% overall signaling an IRQ issue (2 cores). I've also noticed that Win7 doesn't recognize HDMI audio at all...

I'm going to try and put my 8600gt back in and update with my results... if it works, i'm going to be kinda upset that i'm going to have to sell my brand new 4670 after a couple weeks and take a loss on it

edit: installed the 8600gt, everything is smooth and loads much quicker. 3d games play smooth again. the issue was definitely with the hdmi pass through on a mobo with realtek ac97. now i just need to find out what's causing the system interrupt issue on my dell zino hd...